Mr. Speaker, for the last eight years May 12 has been the International Awareness Day for Chronic Immunological and Neurological Diseases. These diseases include chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia.
May 12 was selected as the day to bring attention to these conditions since it is Florence Nightingale's birthday. Most people know her as the founder of modern nursing but few know that she spent most of the last half of her life confined to her home suffering from a disease similar to what we now call chronic fatigue syndrome.
These diseases have no known cause and no cure has been found and because they are difficult to diagnose nobody knows how many Canadians suffer from these diseases.
Like Florence Nightingale, many people with these afflictions are bedridden and often require numerous medications and constant medical attention.
I ask all hon. members to join with me in recognizing May 12 as the awareness day for chronic immunological and neurological diseases.